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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26447203">The Devil's Brood</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlowerofAlganon23/pseuds/FlowerofAlganon23'>FlowerofAlganon23</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Cersei is a rather unhappy Queen, Dark Jon, F/F, F/M, Jon is a Targaryen, R Plus L Equals J, mention of child death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 05:59:35</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death, Underage</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,320</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26447203</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlowerofAlganon23/pseuds/FlowerofAlganon23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Cersei marries Rhaegar and nothing is as she had hoped.</p><p>Rhaegar wins - AU</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Cersei Lannister/Rhaegar Targaryen (one-sided), Jon Snow/Rhaenys Targaryen (implied), Lyanna Stark/Rhaegar Targaryen (mentioned), Robb Stark/Daenerys Targaryen (mentioned)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>105</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Devil's Brood</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Cersei had always dreamed about the day she would wed Rhaegar Targaryen. That he would be the most handsome King and have only eyes for her.</p><p>Yet, it had been nothing like this. The wedding had not even been particularly splendid, as her Lord Father had insisted on a quick ceremony to seal the allegiance he had made many bloody sacrifices for.</p><p>Cersei knew about these sacrifices and so did Jaime, who had not spoken a whole moon with their Lord Father after he had found out what the Mountain had done to the Dornish Princess.</p><p>Officially, she had been killed when King Aerys‘ remaining loyalists had fought her Lord Father’s men during the sack of King’s Landing. That Jaime had confirmed her Lord Father’s lie had made it all the easier, but she had the feeling that none of the Dornish believed the tale.</p><p>Not that she cared about them. Doran Martell and his Viper of a brother couldn’t harm a true lion. They were nothing like dirt beneath her feet. The same could be said about Ned Stark and his whore of a sister.</p><p>She had perished somewhere in Dorne and had left behind a wailing babe, a Prince. Cersei had understood why her Lord Father had not told his men to kill Elia Martell’s little runts, but this babe's existence had been the greatest of insult.</p><p>It was as if Lyanna Stark had decided to hunt her beyond the grave and even then she had told herself that her Silver Prince would eventually forget about the Stark whore once he had lain with her.</p><p>But none of that had happened. Her Silver Prince had danced with her once and had shared a cup of summer wine with her, but otherwise, he had been more like a raincloud, dark and gloomy and full of unshed tears.</p><p>He had been terribly drunk when he had crawled into her bed that night after he had sent all these men out of the chamber. Cersei’s heart had been beating as fast as if she was some innocent maid, but then the King had done nothing but stare at her with his dark purple eyes as if it was the first time he really saw her as a person.</p><p><em>I cannot do this, my lady</em>, he had told her and had slept beside her.<em> I cannot do that.</em></p><p>The days had passed, as Cersei had settled into her position as Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, a position she had been born for.</p><p>Even so, she couldn’t help but be irritated whenever she laid eyes on Prince Aegon and Princess Rhaenys. Especially, the girl viewed her with nothing but contempt and even refused to greet her when they passed in the hall.</p><p>Of the Stark whore’s run she saw little because Rhaegar had sent him to Dragonstone with his nursemaid and his mother Queen Rhaella. The Queen Mother was with child as well, despite her age. Jaime had told her how the cursed creature had been conceived. A child of rape, a child of madness.</p><p>Not that Cersei had time to care about all this, for after a moon turn she had still not lain with her King and husband and her Lord Father was becoming impatient.</p><p>
  <em>Do what you must, daughter. I have already paved the way for you.</em>
</p><p>Thus, she had approached her King and had brought up the matter after a pleasant supper.</p><p>The King had only wrinkled his brows and told her that it might take at least a year before he could even consider it…</p><p>When Cersei had heard this, she had wanted to run back to Casterly Rock to seek Jaime’s warm embrace, but she knew that was impossible now. He was what their Lord Father had always wanted him to be: the Golden Heir of Casterly Rock.</p><p>She hated him for abandoning her and she hated the Stark whore even more for stealing her Silver Prince.</p><p>It was all so terribly unfair.</p><p>…</p><p>A year passed and her King finally found his way into her bed. It was a trite and somber affair, but the worst was that he smelled of wine and didn’t even linger more than to do his duty.</p><p>Cersei had felt humiliated and angry, but at least he had given her his seed, though it had not been enough to conceive a child.  It had taken a good dozen or more times before she had finally been with child and for the first time in a year, Cersei had felt overjoyed.</p><p>The King had not shared her happiness. Instead, he had traveled to the Wall to meet with some old grand-uncle of his. For moons, she heard nothing of him while Cersei grew heavy with child and prayed that it was a boy with silver hair and purple eyes, a true Targaryen Prince.</p><p>Perhaps that would be enough to make him hers.</p><p>Six more moons had passed when she was sent into confinement and her King had still not returned to see his child born.</p><p>All in all, it was a quick birth, a seldom thing for a firstborn babe or so the nursemaid had told her afterward.</p><p>This time, the gods had fulfilled Cersei’s wish and she had born a healthy boy, a Prince of House Targaryen, though his hair was golden like hers.</p><p>For weeks, she waited for an answer from her husband to give their Prince a name, but none came. In the end, the High Septon began pressuring her to see the babe blessed.</p><p>Thus, Cersei named the babe herself. She would have liked to call him Aegon, but that would have surely displeased the Dornish and she didn’t want these horrid people to dim her happiness.</p><p>She had named him Daeron instead, for the Young Dragon that had conquered Dorne. <em>A fine insult</em>, she had thought and had carried her screaming babe before the High Septon.</p><p>Her husband had returned a moon later, thinner and with a frozen smile gracing his lips as he had held his son.</p><p>He had even liked the name or so he had claimed, but beyond that, he had not shown the boy any more consideration than Cersei.</p><p>Instead, he had taken the babe and had asked the head maid to bring the children to him. The entire evening, Cersei had to endure the presence of Prince Aegon, Princess Rhaenys, and the Stark whore’s child. Princess Jaehaerys, as her King had named his unworthy bastard child, but in truth, he looked nothing like a Targaryen. His hair was dark brown and his dark eyes only held the hint of purple, like his father. This should have given Cersei some sort of satisfaction, but the contrary was the case.</p><p>The King treated him like a trueborn Prince. The same could be said about his other children. Especially, Princess Rhaenys held a great liking for the quite and solemn boy that always hid away from Cersei, as if he could sense her hostility.</p><p>The Princess Rhaenys was different. She had shown no fear in front of Cersei and had even asked to hold her son, but she had told the girl, claiming that a young girl might just drop her.</p><p>Yet, she wasn’t the worst of them. No, the worst of them all was Prince Viserys, her King’s rotten brother, who held nothing but contempt for her and his rotten little sister. The Princess Daenerys was a vicious little Imp that would never sit still and cared little for courtesy.</p><p>Truly, beyond her boy, Cersei felt nothing but misery in this place.</p><p>Thus, she clung to him, as if she was a sailor clinging to the last piece of wood, trying to survive the stormy sea.</p><p>"One child is not enough,“ her Lord Father told her when her golden Prince celebrated his first nameday at Casterly Rock. "Give him a handful more and he will forget about the past.“</p><p>Cersei had accepted her Lord Father’s command like always and had brought up the idea to her King, who had complied only unwillingly. A good dozen of times, she had to share his bed before she had a second babe, a girl which the King called Visenya, a horrid name by Cersei’s estimation.</p><p>Visenya had been the disliked wife of Aegon the Conqueror and according to many maester’s chronic a practicer of dark magic and the mother of the cursed King Maegor. Truly, it was a name more fitting for a child by the Stark whore, but then it was the first time her King had smiled when he had given the babe a name.</p><p>Cersei didn’t feel the same way. The child was nothing like her. It had a tangle of dirty-blond hair and by age three, she had broken her nose in a squabble with her brother. She was so unlike Cersei that she couldn’t help but to wonder whether the nursemaid had not exchanged the babe for another while she had been birthing her.</p><p>Yet, the worst was that that girl of hers took a liking to her siblings. Day and night, she spent running about in company of Prince Aegon and Prince Jaehaerys, scrubbing her knees and tearing her new dresses. The girl was a hopeless case and thus Cersei clung only further to her Golden Prince, for he was perfect in every possible way.</p><p>At age two he could speak and walk perfectly. At age four he could read and write his first words. At age six, he could ride his first horse and at age eight he was already swinging his blade as quickly as Jaime.</p><p>Cersei had never been prouder, but her King never saw it the same way. He treated her Golden Prince like everyone, making no difference between Elia Martell’s hot-tempered Prince and the Stark whore’s sullen bastard.</p><p>No, when Prince Aegon lost a practice duel, the King praised him anyway and when Prince Jaehaerys spent all day reading tales in company of Princess Rhaenys, he had laughed and had pulled the boy into his lap, reading him another tale. Even their daughter, who was neither particularly accomplished in her studies nor particularly pretty as her husband or herself, was constantly praised and treated kindly for her failures.</p><p>Cersei tried to make up for her husband’s failures and reminded her son constantly how he was different from the others.</p><p>He was after all her Golden Prince, though Cersei had birthed her husband a third son, another Prince, whom he named Maekar, after anther long-dead King. Unlike her Golden Prince he was sickly and soft of heart, another disappointment.</p><p>Thus, Cersei spent her time nursing her Golden Prince to the greatness he was meant to be.</p><p>…</p><p>At age thirteen, her babe was a man even more handsome than his sire and an even better swordsman than Jaime, or at least that is what Cersei believed.</p><p>No one was better at swordplay, no one was better at horsemanship and no one was more well-read than her Golden Prince.</p><p>Sadly, her blind husband saw none of it. Instead, he spent his time grooming his other failed children.</p><p>He found Prince Aegon a match with the Tyrell girl, a silly girl who could do naught but giggle whenever she opened her rosy mouth.</p><p>When she birthed a son nine mons later, a silver-haired and purple-haired prince, Cersei hated her even more, but as her Lord Father had promised her upon her wedding, the babe didn’t live longer than a year. A year later, the girl had another miscarriage, probably brought on by another one of Pycelle’s poisonous teas, though this time, the silly and giggling Tyrell girl bled to death in a sea of blood.</p><p>From this day on, Prince Aegon turned into a sullen and hateful boy and spent more time with whores than his studies. It grew so bad, that her husband even sent him to Dorne to spent time with his other family.</p><p>Cersei had been more than pleased because thus the first obstacle in her path had been removed from her son’s path to the crown. That was until Prince Aegon would wed again, but then she was sure there would not be a single living child with Pycelle watching over the birthing process.</p><p>Two more years passed, as her King and husband spent his time planning the future of his children. Cersei gave her opinion of course but was never heard. Her husband was too fond of these failed children of his to see the greatness of their Golden Prince.</p><p>His Impish sister was wed to the Stark heir, an auburn-haired youngling whom she had fallen for during a visit to the North. <em>A most unsuitable match</em>, Cersei had called it, but her husband had not cared about her opinion. Another marriage followed soon after when the Stark whore’s runt had decided to get his own sister with a child. Cersei had already been planning to see Elia Martell’s daughter wed to Jaime’s heir and the Stark whore’s son to her ugly little duckling of a daughter. They would have made a fine match she thought, one long of face and the other with a broken nose…</p><p>Well, in the end, the Stark whore’s boy had quashed all his hopes and her husband had not even been upset about this match. Instead, he had paid them a splendid wedding and had given them Summerhall, the palace he had rebuilt in honor of the Stark whore, leaving her own son without anything worth to inherit.</p><p>Only her daughter had not been sad about the broken betrothal. She had been relived and had spent more and more time in the company of Jaime’s little girl…</p><p>One day, close to her fourteenth name day, she found the two of them in bed, all naked from head to toe. Angry and shocked, Cersei had complained to her husband, who had not shared her disgust.</p><p>Instead, he had spoken all night to their ugly little duckling and had allowed her to roam free with Jaime’s little girl.</p><p>Soon after, he also made plans for her Golden Prince and had him wed to Ned Stark’s daughter, an auburn-haired songbird who worshipped the ground her Golden Prince walked on.</p><p>Sadly, Daeron took no liking to the girl, though he enjoyed plowing her well enough. Soon after, she fell with a child, but Cersei was again disappointed. Two daughters’ followed while Prince Jaehaerys and Princess Rhaenys‘  had produced two sons in only four years of marriage. Whenever Cersei laid eyes on the dark-haired boys with her husband’s eyes, she couldn’t help but despise them.</p><p>The fact, that they lived far away at Summerhall, had made it all the harder to kill them, but as so often there was always a chance when one was prepared to wait long enough.</p><p>That moment came soon after both Prince Maekar and Prince Jaehaerys‘ runts came down with measles, a common childhood illness. The older one, Prince Aemon had nothing more but a simple bout, but Pycelle’s poison worked fast and the boy perished within a week. The younger one, Prince Baelor, had come down with a worse case and thus her husband had him sent back to Summerhall, which had prevented Pycelle from completing his work.</p><p>Even so, the loss of her child had turned the rude Princess Rhaenys into a thin and pale creature that spent more time with the Sept than at court. Not even her beloved horses were able to quell her pain.</p><p>It was a joy to Cersei to see the girl humbled after so many acts of cruelty against her.</p><p>Only her bastard husband, Prince Jaehaerys had not been humbled. On the contrary, by every passing day, the boy had become more sullen than before.</p><p>Yet, that had only been the beginning of a bloody feud.</p><p>The Golden Prince against the Black Bastard.</p><p>Not a day when by without threats being exchanged between her Golden Prince and the Stark whore’s bastard, but that was not the worst of it.</p><p>The bastard had none of her husband’s beauty, but he humiliated her son in every melee, earning himself knighthood before her Golden Prince.</p><p>"I hate him, mother,“ her Golden Prince would complain. „I want him dead. He and his child and his whore of a wife. I want them all dead. Can’t you do away with them like with Aegon’s bride and children?“</p><p>Cersei had only kissed his cheeks and had promised him that all would be well.</p><p>Yet, she should have known better than to entrust the future of their family to a child, for her Golden Prince took measures into her own hands and brought naught but pain upon them.</p><p>It happened all during the next hunt when Princess Rhaenys had partaken in the hunt instead of her husband and had suddenly suffered a fateful fall. The fall alone would not have killed her, but the horse had landed atop of her and had crushed her back, thus ending another one of Cersei’s many enemies.</p><p>Only this time, her machinations had not remained in the dark.</p><p>Not long after the incident, Lyanna Stark’s bastard had found the saddle of the horse cut and had presented the evidence to his father.</p><p>"Someone wanted to kill me, me father,“ the young man had said in a trembling voice, his gaze filled with hatred.</p><p>Her King, her pale and beloved prince had stared at the evidence with red-rimmed eyes.</p><p>"We shall investigate this matter,“ he promised his son. "I promise.“</p><p>Prince Jaehaerys‘ had only scoffed. "I shall take care of this matter, father.“</p><p>And that he did.</p><p>She had always believed that the birth of her son had been the happiest day of her life, but that day proved the saddest, most heartbreaking day.</p><p>For the promise of the witch had come true. The first of her babes perished young.</p><p>Her Golden Prince had been found beaten and blood, with a sword through his heart.</p><p>What surprised her that his Golden Prince confessed the deed to his father without a hint of guilt in his hateful features.</p><p>"You killed your own brother, why?“ her husband asked him with a trembling voice. His face had been incredibly pale, his voice lacking the iron tone of the past. „Why?“</p><p>"Because he confessed what he did,“ Prince Jaehaerys had replied in an icy tone. "He murdered Rhaenys in cold blood, though he had wanted to kill me.“</p><p>"Lies!“ Cersei had begged with her husband. "Dirty lies!“</p><p>But as always, her husband didn’t listen to her many pleadings.</p><p>"No one shall know about the circumstances of his death,“ he had declared coldly and had looked at her with contempt. "You still have Maekaer and Visenya. That will have to be enough to still your anger, Lady wife.“</p><p>Yet, none could still her rage. She was a lioness and on the very night, she went to Pycelle.</p><p>She had loved her Silver Prince once and now she needed to put an end to their marriage.</p><p>With poison.</p><p>…</p><p>Three weeks later, King Rhaegar perished from a bout of illness. It also marked the beginning of autumn, the trees bare, when the High Septon placed a golden crown upon Maeker’s silver curls.</p><p>Cersei could barely look at him, so pale and almost like broken glass. He had smiled and had hoped for Cersei’s love, but she couldn’t give him that when she had wasted all her affection for his dead brother.</p><p>Gone before his time.</p><p>Her only satisfaction was that she had her Lord Father’s support and that there was little resistance against her actions.</p><p>Prince Aegon had spent years in Dorne, wallowing in self-pity and drowning himself in wine. And the Dornish spears were nothing compared to Tywin Lannister’s goldmines and a marriage match forged between Jaime’s girl, born both of House Lannister and House Hightower, and her sickly son. Even her ugly duckling served her purpose and was soon enough wed off to Harry Hardyng, a drunken-fool who had fathered more bastards than trueborn children upon his late wife.</p><p>It were these matches that held the realm together for two more years. That was when the first signs of winter became visible and the harvest was taken by a terrible chill. Uprisings erupted all over the realm and it was Prince Aegon, who had decided to abandon his wine in favor of the sword, who came with promises of corn from the east, where his half-brother Prince Jaehaerys had raised an army of sellswords with the help of Princess Daenerys, who had long been widowed and was now ruling Winterfell instead of her son, another Brandon or Ned or whatever these barbaric Northmen liked to call their children.</p><p>Yet, the most terrifying about it was the mention of dragons.</p><p>Cersei had felt the urge to throw her cup of wine at the page boy. She had never paid much attention to Rhaegar’s Impish sister and had thought her a grieving widow, weak and weeping over her husband’s and father-in-law’s loss to the Wildlings that were constantly attacking the Wall …</p><p>She couldn’t have been more wrong. The noose was already tightening around her when she found out about their treason. The North had risen for the Stark whore’s runt. Dorne and the Stormlands had joined hands after Renly had wed his only daughter to Princess Arianne’s and Prince Viserys‘ heir. The Riverlords were rising for Prince Aegon and half of the Vale had turned their back upon her. That her Lord Father was no longer the man he had once been, made it all the easier. The fact, that Jaime’s heart was filled with disgust towards her, didn't help either. And all of that because Prince Aegon, Prince Jaehaerys, and Princess Daenerys had dragons.</p><p>It felt as if the witch’s prophecy was coming true.</p><p>First, her Golden Prince and now her ugly little duckling had perished in childbirth.</p><p>Cersei had wept over her loss, which had also cost her the Vale. Yet, the hardest hit came six moons later…</p><p>She had just been informed about her Lord Father’s death by fever while he had been fighting against Prince Aegon.</p><p>The letter had been written by no other than Jaime, who had urged her once more to accept the King’s peace.</p><p>With King, he meant the Dornish Princess‘ son. The drunken fool who had decided that he wanted to steal her son’s crown.</p><p>"I never wanted it,“ her sickly boy had told her the night before, his head fevrish to her touch. "I never wanted the crown, mother.“</p><p>And that very night he had perished as well. Her last child, covered with a shroud of gold.</p><p>Cersei knew the valonqar had come for her when Prince Jaehaerys and his brother Prince Aegon had found her seated atop the Iron Throne, her son’s rotten corpse resting on her knees.</p><p>When she looked upon Prince Aegon’s sun-kissed face, she saw only his mother, a woman she had hated long before Lyanna Stark.</p><p>Yet, when she looked upon, Prince Jaehaerys, she saw Rhaegar’s dark gaze looking down at her.</p><p>It was full of hatred and made his pale face appear even longer.</p><p>Age and grief had left their mark upon him as much as on Cersei. She was no longer the bright sun of the Westerlands, but her hair had turned grey and her dress was black instead of the bright crimson color she had chosen for her wedding.</p><p>"What are we to do with her, brother?“ Prince Aegon asked. His face was hard and a mask of anger, but his deep purple eyes were filled with exhaustion. "She is the Queen Mother.“</p><p>"I am a Kinslayer,“ Prince Jaehaerys replied with a smile. His red dragon’s head was looming above him, his pale eyes staring at Cersei like a wolve eying its prey. Prince Aegon’s dragon was the complete opposite: pale like a ghost and as black as the night. "One more time, won’t matter.“</p><p>When Cersei felt the dragon’s hot breath upon her face, she knew that even the witch had lied to her.</p><p>She had promised her two golden hands wrapped around her neck, not the hot breath of a dragon devouring her…</p><p>…</p><p>
  <em>"Did it really happen like that, Aunt Daenerys?“ asked the melancholic boy. He had the sun-kissed skin of Dorne and the plain brown hair of a Northmen, but his face was fuller and his dark eyes showed a hint of purple.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>King Baelor was only sixteen name-days old but looked much like her second husband Prince Jaehaerys. He had wed her to unite the South and the North as one, but she had cared for him nonetheless.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"I fear so,“ Daenerys replied and placed her hand on his arm. "But no one will ever know the truth. It cannot be.“</em>
</p><p>
  <em>She had served as his regent for nearly six years, through the fading winter and the beginning of spring. He had been a mere boy when her two nephew’s Prince Jaehaerys and King Aegon had perished against the Others. Only Daenerys and two dragons had remained of House Targaryen, but the War for the Dawn had left the realm in shambles. Years of starvation had followed, but the pain and suffering had also brought change. The Faith of the Seven had lost its relevance and religious influences from the East were becoming more prominent by every passing year. The North and the Wildlings had finally made peace with each other and the high lords had been too weakened to frown about a woman taking up the regency for her husband’s son.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"But it makes father sound so terrible,“ he complained, like a young child, who didn’t like the tale he had been given.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"There are King’s for war and King’s for peace,“ Daenerys replied and patted his curly head. "You are the latter I hope, but both are needed.“</em>
</p><p>
  <em>…</em>
</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>The title is inspired by the Devil's Crown. It's a BBC adaption of Henry's II life and his romance with Eleanor. Its fricking good, if you want something good to watch because it shows that something can be actually good if you have writers who can write good dialog, despite a low budget. Henry II was a very interesting person as well. He was like Robert, but much more intelligent and the actor who portrays him would be my casting for Robert if there was ever a show casting for a Rebellion prequel. Rhaegar would be Heath Ledger of course and Lyanna Katie McGrath. Let me dream...</p><p>This story was written as a one-shot, but I am thinking of writing something about the Rhae x Jon pairing. I have never explored that one. It would be a one-shot only, though.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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